Shanghai [Part 5: The Bund]

After attending the conference on Monday, I figured I should check out the Bund, which is a historical district that was populated by the English, French, Germans, Dutch, and so on after the Opium Wars.  I wanted to go across and check out the architecture.  Here is a video of the Bund from my side of the river:



I'd heard the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel was surreal, and the entrance was across the street from my hotel, so I figured I should check it out.  First, you have to go down about four flights of stairs until you're under the river.

At the bottom, there are plastic carts coming and going.  They are big enough to hold a dozen people, but since there weren't many people down there, I got one all to myself.

And of course, even more young Chinese employees whose job was to point at the cart door when it opened.  :)  Workers EVERYWHERE!

The tunnel itself was a surreal light show with voices, in English and Chinese, saying stuff like "Shooting stars."  "Nascent magma."  "Paradise and hell."  "Basalt in blue water." as the colors shifted all around me.  It was some combination of cool, creepy, and WHAT?!

I took a video of the experience:



It was hard to get good photos at night, but here's a photo from the Bund side of the river back to the peninsula where my hotel was.

Lots of tour and casino boats going up and down the river.

The architecture was interesting:

 

But by far the craziest part of the night was the scammers!!!  So I decided to walk down one of the side streets to see if there were any cool shops or restaurants.  A man comes up to me with good English: "Hey, how are you doing?  Do you need a massage?  Why not?  Come on, cheap massage.  Only 200 yuan.  How about 100 yuan.  Happy ending?  Young girls.  Happy ending?  Why not?  How about sex?  Massage and sex?  100 yuan."  I kept walking.  About 20 feet later, an old lady comes up to me.  "Massage?  Happy ending?  Sex?  Sex?  Young girls.  Very young girls."  I'm getting creeped out, so I walk into a retail silk store, just to be left alone for a while.

Except...  in China, you don't get left alone in stores, ESPECIALLY if you're a westerner by himself.  If you enter a retail establishment, someone will walk up behind you and just... follow you around.  They won't say anything, they will just stalk you.  So I ended up leaving there without buying anything.  On the sidewalk, an old lady rushes up to me "Cheap silk! Follow me! Don't buy stuff in that store! Follow me!" I was walking the same direction, so she assumed I was following her. Eventually she has me glance through a street stall, selling silk.  I looked around but wasn't in the mood to shop, so I waved goodbye.  The old lady says "No, cheap silk! Follow me!" and points up a dark creepy stairway.  Um, no thanks.  I keep walking.  "Massage? Sex? Young girls?"  I thought REALLY?!  Even SILK SCARF LADY wants me to get a happy ending?  What is WRONG with this place.

I said screw it, and headed back to the tunnel and my hotel.  Of course, on the way there, I was accosted by no less than three more people.

It turns out this is a scam where they convince you to get a massage, often in some unknown location, and then bring in some heavies to intimidate you into emptying your wallet or giving them your credit card.  For whatever reason, the police turn a blind eye.

Anyway, so that was my Bund experience.  If I went again, I'd go during the day.  And probably only stay on the well-traveled tourist paths.